Just One Kiss
by HeavenlyBodies
Summary: After Chances, Dean tries to fix the future. This will make more sense if you’ve read Chances.


**Spoilers:** up to 5x04 (inspired by those stills), but has NOTHING to do with the actual ep  
**Feedback:** Makes me happy, just play nice  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, never have been, never will be... They belong to Kripke/McG/et al, and a bunch of other corporate-type ppl, in other words, not me.  
**Warnings/Squicks:** angst, AU (very AU)  
**Summary:** After Chances, Dean tries to fix the future. (This will make more sense if you've read Chances.)

**AN1:** This is total hogswallow, it was bourne from those wonderful squee inducing stills.

~~~~~~~~~

Dean awoke in his motel room- same scratchy bedspread, same hideous wallpaper. He rolled over to look at the cheap alarm clock, which assured him it was only three hours since he'd spoken with Cas on the phone.  
Rubbing his face in his hands, Dean muttered to the room at large, "Damn angels read too much Dickens." With a weak groan he got up and made his way to the shower, he had a lot to think about and after the 'night' he'd had, he couldn't wait to get clean.  
As the almost too hot water sluiced over his bent shoulders, Dean thought about _everything_. Though mainly he thought about Castiel. He thought about how different that Cas had been from his own- how strong the angel was, both of him. Dean thought about how to pull his angel out without overwhelming him or breaking him. Dean wasn't a saint, so he also thought about that kiss, about the feel of those wings wrapped around him, and, more importantly, how to get that with _his_ Cas.  
From what the other Cas had told him, his Cas already loved him, he just didn't understand what he was feeling, which meant _all_ Dean had to do was get his angel to realize it before he… before it was too late. He'd start by keeping his angel close to him, besides, even without this latest revelation, Cas was family now and he needed to understand that.

---

It had been almost two weeks since Dean's little trip.  
During that time he'd spoken with Sammy nearly every day, there was still a long way to go before they reached anything close to normal- even 'Winchester' normal, but it was a start. Sam was even going to meet up with him in a few days; the brothers Winchester would be a team again.  
More importantly, in some ways, Dean had convinced Cas to stay with him while Sammy was gone- at least that's what he told the angel. Cas still didn't quite get the point of fake ID's and the personas that went with them, but he did make a surprisingly good shotgun.  
Dean made use of the long hours on the road to try to get his angel to open up. He wasn't at all sure it was working, but he was happier. And maybe it was because he was looking for any sign of emotion from his angel, or maybe it was just wishful thing, but more often than not he caught Cas looking at him like he was now, his head tilted in that familiar gesture of innocent curiosity that Dean refused to admit he found endearing, studying him as if he was burning an image into his mind or possibly just watching the hamster wheel that passed for Dean's brain.

Castiel smiled faintly, a soft sound like a broken laugh passing his lips, "There is not a furry mammal of any species inside your head, Dean, nor is there the wheeled contraption which you imagine."

"Cas, buddy, don't do that. It's," Dean shivered slightly, "disturbing."

Cas ducked his head like an errant child, "Forgive me. When your emotions lay so close to the surface, at times it is harder to block them out that to simply let them be."

Dean pulled off the road and put the Impala in park, before turning to face his angel. "You mean you've been listening to my thoughts for the past year?!?" Dean snapped more harshly than he'd intended.

"You have my truest apologies. It is not something I am conscious of." Castiel continued to avert his gaze, staring out the front windshield now, rather than examining the seat upholstery. "Since… Lucifer… I can no longer hear my brothers and sisters, your thoughts seem to naturally fill that void. I will try to block them in the future."

As they sat in the Impala, Cas looking forlornly out the window and Dean staring awed at his angel- and Cas truly was _his angel_ now- it suddenly seemed so impossibly simple. He'd been waiting for something from his angel, when it was obvious the entire time. All he had to do was turn Cas' face to his and lean forward, pressing their lips together, and then everything would change- the future he'd been to, the pain in that Cas' soul, it would all be gone. He'd have Cas and his brother, and they would fight Lucifer and the angels and anything else thrown at them together. It would all change with just one kiss.


End file.
